Arizona baseball had won five of its last seven games, which included three road wins, entering Friday evening’s matchup with Kansas State.
Arizona
Cardinals vs Rams: Three X Factors
The Arizona Cardinals’ opener against the Buffalo Bills a week ago had mixed results.
On one hand, Kyler Murray was solid and found ways to make plays despite being under constant duress. On the flip side of the ball, the defense was bullied by Josh Allen and couldn’t help the offense when they needed the help to play catch up.
Arizona returns to State Farm Stadium for their home opener against the NFC West rival Los Angeles Rams, which will be quite the challenge.
LA has a host of Pro Bowlers on offense, including Matthew Stafford, Cooper Kupp, and Kyren Williams – all of whom have had great success against the Cardinals’ defense.
It will once again fall on Murray and the offense’s shoulders to keep the Cardinals in this game, but they’ll need the following players to have great days if they want to get the upset and their first win of the season.
Paris Johnson Jr
This Cardinals offensive line was bullied against the Bills a week ago, surrendering four sacks and constant pressure throughout 60 minutes. Things get no easier ais the Rams, who have booked edge rushers in Byron Young and first-round rookie Jared Verse, who each recorded a sack in week one’s loss to the Lions.
The duo was far from the issue in the defeat, and they will be the key on defense for LA against the Cardinals.
We, unfortunately, know what to expect from Kelvin Beachum at right tackle, but second-year man Paris Johnson Jr will have quite the task in front of him with a chance to prove himself.
A lot of pressure will be placed on Johnson, right, wrong, or indifferent. But a strong day from Johnson dramatically increases the Cardinals’ chances to get the win.
Kyzir White and Mack Wilson Sr
White (first) and Wilson (third) were two of the Cardinals’ top three tacklers from last week and they’ll once again need to put up some big numbers against the Rams.
LA has no shortage of weapons but running back Kyren Williams may be the top priority for this defense to slow down. After all, Williams ran for 301 yards on 8.4 yards per carry plus a touchdown against Arizona in two games last season.
The defensive line needs to be on their A-game, but it’ll be up to White and Wilson to contain Williams if he gets to the second level and keep him from breaking off big runs.
Sean Murphy-Bunting
Sean Murphy-Butning has the “pleasure” of covering Cooper Kupp this weekend…
If the Cardinals are smart, and I believe they will recognize this as a top priority, they will put Kupp in bracket coverage to make sure Murphy-Bunting, and his teammates aren’t covering Kupp one-on-one. There are few defensive backs in the league who can do it, so this is no insult to the veteran corner.
However, Murphy-Bunting will be likely tasked with lining up on the former Super Bowl MVP the most, and thus he’ll need to put together the best performance of his career.
In these four-round projections, the Arizona Cardinals don’t get a tackle until the fourth round.
We are just days away from the 2026 NFL draft, and that means some final mock drafts. What direction will the draft take the Arizona Cardinals?
Draft Wire’s Curt Popejoy put together a four-round mock draft for the Cardinals. They go defense early but rebuild the offense for 2026 and moving forward, including landing their potential franchise quarterback.
Cardinals 4-round mock draft
Here are the players in the first four rounds Popejoy projects for Arizona.
- Round 1: Ohio State EDGE/LB Arvell Reese
- Round 2: Alabama QB Ty Simpson
- Round 3: Clemson WR Antonio Williams
- Round 4: Florida OT Austin Barber
What we think of the picks
The Cardinals want to trade out of the third pick and draft a tackle, so not getting a tackle until Round 4 seems unlikely, although they did meet with Barber. They do have options at right tackle for 2026 already on the roster.
Reese would be a great pick if they don’t trade back, as they badly need pass-rushing help off the edge.
Drafting Simpson seems inevitable at this point, so it has to be in a mock draft, although the feeling is they will need to go up into Round 1 again to get him.
Williams has speed and is almost six feet tall, but he does have short arms.
Get more Cardinals and NFL coverage from Cards Wire’s Jess Root and others by listening to the latest on the Rise Up, See Red podcast. Subscribe on Spotify, YouTube or Apple podcasts.
Due to significant injuries to the CB position last year which includes a shoulder surgery for Terrion Arnold, the Lions CB position scored a 6/10 need on my Lions Defensive Draft Need Rankings. Thus, an early-round selection of a young, healthy prospect like Keith Abney would not come as a surprise. He enters the draft with very low medical concern level.
Here is the excerpt from my medical report on Keith Abney:
(Ages in parentheses are at start of 2026 season and are factored into the concern level. Injury info and ages based on available public information are unverified and subject to update. Games played data courtesy of sports-reference.com.)
Keith Abney, CB (21) – Arizona State
Projected round 2-3. #43 on Jeff Risdon board Feb 19.
Concern level 0/10
There is an isolated report of a hand injury but no corroborating information. Even if the hand injury is true, that’s of minimal to no long-term concern.
His availability in his final two seasons has been perfect. Overall, Abney appears to be medically clean and is at an excellent age.
He finished college with 6 INT and 21 PBU.
For more Lions coverage, follow us on X, @TheLionsWire, and give our Facebook page a like. Follow Jimmy on X, @JimmyLiaoMD
In the first game of the series, Arizona (14-23, 5-11 Big 12) battled in a low-scoring affair but fell short in a 2-1 loss to Kansas State (24-12, 8-8 Big 12). The Wildcats from Tucson held the Wildcats from Manhattan at bay for a good majority of the night.
Given that Kansas State leads the Big 12 in conference play in batting, on-base percentage, and slugging, Arizona had a rather good performance, but it was not enough.
Owen Kramkowski pitched seven scoreless innings before allowing the first Kansas State run in the top of the eight. He finished with six strikeouts and kept the high octane Wildcats at bay.
“I thought the defense played well behind him too,” said head coach Chip Hale. “There’s a lot of ground balls, and we made plays where we were positioned in good places, and he was pitching in the eighth inning. That’s unbelievable.”
Garrett Hicks (3-1) came in to try and stop the bleeding for the Wildcats and did so by not allowing Kansas State to take the lead in the eighth. It was in the ninth when the lead was surrendered.
It took until the sixth inning but the first run was scored by Arizona. Andrew Cain singled to left field and after Maddox Mihalakis flew out, it was Beau Sylvester bringing Cain home with a triple through right center field.
Sylvester extended his hitting streak to eight games and it proved to be not enough to get Arizona to the finish line.
Kansas State tied the game at the top of the eight when back to back singles got runners on at first and third. Then a passed ball allowed the third base runner to come home.
Arizona had a chance to retake the lead in the bottom of the ninth after Cain singled to deep right field. With Sylvester back at the plate, it seemed like it was a perfect set up.
A wild pitch nearly got past Kansas State and Cain tried to take advantage of it and steal home. However, Kansas State was able to corral the pitch and get Cain out at home.
AJ Evasco started the ninth inning with a double for Kansas State and back to back fly outs eventually got him home to give Kansas State the lead and the win.
With eight players being left on base, Arizona will need to bring those runners in more often than not if they want to tie the series Saturday afternoon.
As a young team, the Wildcats have had to walk a very tight line between disappointment and dejection and will need to continue handling these losses with grace if it wants to turn a corner.
“It’s the way it goes, it’s baseball,” said Hale. “If we don’t handle it, we will come out tomorrow and won’t be ready to go, so hopefully they handle it.”
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